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The Discarded Image

An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature

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The Discarded Image

By: C. S. Lewis
Narrated by: Richard Elwood
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About this listen

The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval worldview, providing the historical and cultural background to the literature of the middle ages and renaissance. It describes the 'image' discarded by later years as "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science, and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe". This, Lewis' last book, has been hailed as "the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind".

©1964 Cambridge University Press (P)2021 Upfront Books Middle Ages

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All stars
Most relevant
It was recommended and I'm not disappointed. I will probably have to buy the book to see the references and sources and reread, but decided to listen to the audio first as I wouldn't have to wait and could just get it with my credit.

unique

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In all honesty, this is not the typical kind of book I read but I'm a big fan of CS Lewis and heard this was one of his best. I now see why (I think 🤔).
It opens up a world I never knew existed while shedding light on how modern humanity differs in their conception of the cosmos.

It also served as a massive reading list. I'm excited to pick up an old poem and see how I fare in comprehension beyond the plain (and probably modern) meaning of the text.

In summary, this taught me a lot and is written in such an engaging way that I will have to come back to it. It's worth a read.

I'm sure I grew brain cells reading this book.

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This is a marvellous book, which I first read years ago. It is far more on the “popular academic” side of Lewis and is his synthesis of how medieval literature (for years his “real job” was teaching about it) can best be understood in the context of the medieval view of the universe and vice versa. There are plenty of insights into how modern thinking and writing is similarly influenced and how it is different, too. As always in Lewis his own “theory of everything” is always going on in the background and the book will explain all kinds of things one finds in his fiction or other work, or at least contextualises it. A really essential listen for anyone interested in Lewis. The narration isn’t sublime, and it is the only book from Audible I’ve had to listen to at a slower speed in order to appreciate it properly or tone down the narrator’s enthusiasm. But he does a fair job overall and seems to handle the (relatively modest) quotations from Middle-English and Italian and so forth pretty well. Overall well worth listening to, and even if it wasn’t free I wouldn’t regret using a credit to purchase it.

Wonderfully coherent

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This is an interesting book which will have you going "Ah yes, so that's why that is" when you recognise some idea from the Middle Ages transferring down to today in some shape or form. It may also make you want to go read some of the books mentioned, so be warned if you already have too many books on your to read list. I always like CS Lewis's style, so even though Medieval literature is not something I think much about, it's enjoyable listening to an expert who is clearly passionate about the field.

Even so a somewhat academic book as you would expect from a book derived from a series of lectures, here I have to applaud the narrator who is engaging and delivers the frequent quotations from Chaucer and many more obscure medieval writers in what feel like appropriate accents, I don't know what Old and Middle English really sounded like, but I hope it was like Richard Elwood!

Interesting, slightly academic read lifted by really great narration

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A tricky one to review! CSL was by all accounts a riveting lecturer, and this book is a record of some of his academic lectures from very late in his career. They are brilliant for anyone remotely interested in the subject, and highly recommended.

My problem lies with the reading. It is enthusiastic, very 'English', and the reader does pretty well with CSL's range of original language quotations. The reading is rather fast, faster than this sort of material warrants. With an otherwise good reading, though, a rather fast delivery could pas muster.

But, alas, the main problem is that the reader, realising these are lectures, presents them as he seems to assume rather old-fashioned Oxbridge lectures might be delivered. After a bit, I began to be reminded of an interminable, rapidly delivered and consequently rather monotonous lecture delivered by someone who might be a stand-in for 'Civilisation'’s Kenneth Clark!

Having been at Oxford and having spent a lifetime in university teaching I can say that these lectures, delivered in this way, would impress neither students nor indeed Kenneth Clark. Nor, I am sorry to say, do they remotely do justice to CSL.

Which is a shame. The book deserves to be more widely known. Perhaps it could be read along with listening to the recording? But otherwise - read and save your listening for - oh, I don't know, maybe the excellent recording of Eamon Duffy's 'The Stripping of the Altars'.

Fascinating book; reading an acquired taste.

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